Actions Taken

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced plans to reduce the use of chimpanzees in NIH-funded biomedical research on June 26, 2013. The decision was made in response to recommendations from an NIH working group about how to implement the IOM report Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity.

News Release

Given that chimpanzees are so closely related to humans and share similar behavioral traits, the National Institutes of Health should allow their use as subjects in biomedical research only under stringent conditions, including the absence of any other suitable model and inability to ethically perform the research on people, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. In addition, use of these animals should be permissible only if forgoing their use will prevent or significantly hinder advances necessary to prevent or treat life-threatening or debilitating conditions, said the committee that wrote the report. Based on these criteria, chimpanzees are not necessary for most biomedical research.

Media Advisory

Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity, a new report from the Institute of Medicine, responds to a request from the National Institutes of Health for expert guidance on the scientific need for chimpanzees in such research. The report will be released at a one-hour public briefing starting at 11 a.m. EST Thursday, Dec. 15, in Room 100 of the National Academies’ Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, D.C